Gov. Ron DeSantis calls for special session in April to redraw Florida's
congressional districts
[January 08, 2026]
By MIKE SCHNEIDER and DAVID FISCHER
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he plans
to call a special session in April for the Republican-dominated
legislature to draw new congressional districts, joining a redistricting
arms race among states that have redrawn districts mid-decade.
Even though Florida’s 2026 legislative session starts next week,
DeSantis said he wanted to wait for a possible ruling from the U.S.
Supreme Court on a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling in
Louisiana v. Callais could determine whether Section 2, a part of the
Voting Rights Act that bars discrimination in voting systems, is
constitutional. The governor said “at least one or two” districts in
Florida could be affected by the high court's ruling.
“I don’t think it’s a question of if they’re going to rule. It’s a
question of what the scope is going to be,” DeSantis said at a news
conference in Steinhatchee, Florida. “So, we’re getting out ahead of
that.”
Currently, 20 of Florida’s 28 congressional seats are held by
Republicans.
Congressional districts in Florida that are redrawn to favor Republicans
could carry big consequences for President Donald Trump’s plan to
reshape congressional districts in GOP-led states, which could give
Republicans a shot at winning additional seats in the midterm elections
and retaining control of the closely divided U.S. House.
Nationwide, the unusual mid-decade redistricting battle has so far
resulted in a total of nine more seats Republicans believe they can win
in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio — and a total of six more
seats Democrats expect to win in California and Utah, putting
Republicans up by three. But the redrawn districts are being litigated
in some states, and if the maps hold for 2026, there is no guarantee the
parties will win the seats.
In 2010, more than 60% of Florida voters approved a constitutional
amendment prohibiting the drawing of district boundaries to unfairly
favor one political party in a process known as gerrymandering. The
Florida Supreme Court, however, last July upheld a congressional map
pushed by DeSantis that critics said violated the “Fair Districts”
amendment.
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After that decision, Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez last August
announced the creation of a select committee to examine the state’s
congressional map.
Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman said in a statement
that what DeSantis wants the Legislature to do is clearly illegal.
“Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment strictly prohibits any maps from
being drawn for partisan reasons, and regardless of any bluster from
the governor’s office, the only reason we’re having this
unprecedented conversation about drawing new maps is because Donald
Trump demanded it,” Berman said. “An overwhelming majority of
Floridians voted in favor of the Fair Districts Amendment and their
voices must be respected. The redistricting process is meant to
serve the people, not the politicians.”
In a statement, the Florida Democratic Party called the move by
DeSantis “reckless, partisan and opportunistic.”
“This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to rig the system and
silence voters before the 2026 election,” the statement said. “Now,
after gutting representation for Black Floridians just three years
ago, Ron is hoping the decimation of the Voting Rights Act by
Trump’s Supreme Court will allow him to further gerrymander and
suppress the vote of millions of Floridians.”
Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of
Florida, said the state already has a fairly strong Republican
gerrymander, so it would be difficult for Republicans to pick up
additional seats, unless they’re planning to draw “noncompact
districts that squiggle all over the place” and then hold the
election before a judge can throw out the map. McDonald said
DeSantis also could be trying to shore up Republican strongholds to
mitigate the losses generally experienced by the party in power
during midterm elections.
“Trump’s approval ratings are pretty low,” McDonald said. “And so
looking at what we would expect to happen in November, unless
something fundamentally changes in the country between now and then,
we expect the Democrats to have a very good year.”
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